Ethan of Athos (Vorkosigan Saga #3) 1Star DNF@14%

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Ethan of Athos
Series: Vorkosigan Saga #3
Author: Lois Bujold
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars DNF@14%
Genre: SF
Pages: 183 / 25
Words: 63K / 9K
Publish: 1986

Due to the main character having a sexual relationship with his foster brother, I will not be reading any more by Bujold.

★☆☆☆☆

From Wikipedia

Dr. Ethan Urquhart, Chief of Biology at the Sevarin District Reproduction Centre on Athos, is upset to find that his long-awaited shipment of ovarian tissue cultures from off-planet consists of an unusable mixture of dead and animal tissues. An all-male planetary colony, Athos relies on uterine replicator technology for reproduction, but the centuries-old cultures introduced by the original colonists have recently begun deteriorating into senescence. The Population Council of Athos sends a reluctant Ethan to the planet Jackson's Whole, where the shipment originated, in search of a fresh batch of tissue cultures and (if possible) a refund from the supplier, House Bharaputra, one of the crime syndicates which rule Jackson's Whole. This already difficult assignment is made more so because it means dealing with women, whom Athosians are taught to view as demonic and terrifying.

Ethan arrives at the interstellar hub of Kline Station and immediately encounters his first woman, Commander Elli Quinn, a rather unorthodox intelligence officer with the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet (and a subordinate of Admiral Naismith's). Though she is pleasant and even helpful, Ethan is wary of her. He is soon abducted and interrogated by military agents from Cetaganda who are seeking a fugitive named Terrence Cee, as well as their own lost tissue cultures. They refuse to believe that Ethan is not an opposing intelligence operative. Elli rescues Ethan from certain execution. They become reluctant allies; Elli explains that she has actually been hired by House Bharaputra to track the Cetagandans, and for her own reasons determine what their interest is in the tissue cultures and how it relates to a secret Cetagandan research project.

Terrence approaches Ethan with a request for asylum, revealing himself to be the last survivor of a Cetagandan genetic project to create telepaths. Although his telepathy is reliable, it has a small range and can only be triggered for a short amount of time by ingesting large doses of the amino acid tyramine. Terrance's female counterpart, Janine, had been killed in their escape, but he managed to preserve her body and transport it to Jackson's Whole, where he paid House Bharaputra to splice her genes into the ovarian cultures that were intended for Athos. Terrence had planned to also emigrate to Athos with the cultures, but had been delayed on his way to Kline Station, and is now horrified to learn that the cultures were stolen.

The Cetagandans had tracked Terrence to Jackson's Whole; arriving after his departure, they killed the Bharaputra researchers who had worked with him and destroyed their records. They then traced the tissue shipment to Kline Station, knowing Terrence would eventually come for it, though they have no knowledge of what happened to the original cultures and are desperate to reclaim them. Elli and Ethan manage to have the Cetagandans seized by Kline Station security, just as they discover that a minor official at the station had, for petty personal reasons, "thrown out" the Bharaputran tissue cultures that contained Janine's genes and replaced them with the useless biological material. Elli attempts to recruit Terrence for the Dendarii; he refuses, but gives Elli a small genetic sample. Meanwhile, Ethan asks Elli for (and receives) one of her ovaries to create a new tissue culture. After her departure, the original Bharaputran shipment unexpectedly turns up intact and usable, not destroyed. Ethan buys a new set of ovarian cultures from Beta Colony anyway as a cover, uses their packaging to relabel the cultures with Janine's genes, and returns with them and Terrence to Athos.

The Warrior’s Apprentice (Vorkosigan Saga #2) 4.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Warrior’s Apprentice
Series: Vorkosigan Saga #2
Author: Lois Bujold
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 284
Words: 101K
Publish: 1986

Now this was more like it!!!! After the start I had with Shards of Honor, I wasn’t sure if this series was actually going to be for me or not. Romance in my SF is not a thing I want, or countenance. Especially when it is lady romance with “oh, his eyes, oh his smile” kind of thing. But Admiral General Emperor Bookstooge is glad to report that there was none of THAT in this book. This was a proper 80’s SF adventure story.

As I was reading this, I kept checking things on my mental checklist that I enjoy.
Coming of age story, Check!
Underdog, Check!
Smart character, Check!

Adventure and Action, Check!
Unrequited Love Interest, Check! (of the teen boy variety, which I can handle)

Winning all the marbles, Check!

Badguy in the background only slowly coming to the fore, Check!

Beating the metaphorical snot out of said badguy, Check!

Yes, this book had it all. As I kept reading, I kept finding more and more things that I liked and it made this read better and better. By the end, I was ready to take over a spaceship myself and go fight some space pirates or something ;-)

The only reason this isn’t getting a 5star rating (apart from the fact that I’m as stingy as Scrooge about 5stars) is that I am not sure if my reaction to this book was bounced from my disappointed of the first book. That’ll have to wait to be determined until the inevitable re-read in a decade or two. But for a first read, a 4 ½ star rating is just about as high as a book can get from me. I am pleased as punch about this and I REALLY hope the series continues in this vein and not the first book.

Because this series is popular, it has been re-released several times and there are a multitude of covers. Most are Baen covers (Baen is the publishing house) and Baen knows who their audience is and as such does their covers accordingly. If it helps, all of Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International book covers are by Baen :-D I chose this one just because it looked cool. I don’t think it actually has anything to do with the story, but that doesn’t matter to me at the moment. A good story, a good cover and I’m happy.

★★★★✬

From Wikipedia

When Miles Vorkosigan is disqualified from joining the Barrayaran Imperial Service Academy because he breaks both his fragile legs during the physical entrance test, he sets about trying to prove himself worthy by other means, especially since he blames himself for his aged paternal grandfather's death shortly afterward. To lift Miles' spirits, his mother sends him to Beta Colony to visit his maternal grandmother. Miles has to take his lifelong bodyguard, Bothari, so he seizes the opportunity to have his mother invite Bothari's daughter, Elena, along to broaden her horizons.

At Beta Colony, Miles comes across a tense standoff: "jump pilot" Arde Mayhew refuses to let anyone seize his obsolete starship, the only one he can fly, barricading himself inside and threatening to blow it up rather than let it be scrapped. Miles defuses the situation by buying the freighter from the creditor, using ancestral family lands back on Barrayar as collateral (neglecting to inform the seller that the region is radioactive, a result of the former Cetagandan occupation). He also acquires a crewman, Barrayaran deserter Baz Jesek. To cover the credit note he used to buy the freighter, Miles masquerades as a mercenary leader (in transit) and takes a risky, but very well-paying job offered by Major Carle Daum: transporting a cargo into a war on Tau Verde IV to the losing side, Felice. Bothari and Elena go along.

The star system, however, is under a blockade maintained by a mercenary fleet commanded by Admiral Oser. When the freighter is stopped for inspection, the man in charge decides to take Elena, so Miles has no choice but to overpower him and his lax, small crew. Miles maintains the pretence of being an influential member of a shadowy mercenary outfit, which he calls the Dendarii, and convinces his prisoners to become probationary members, seeing as he has too few people to guard them safely. As time goes on, Miles uses his military genius to first capture and recruit more and more of Oser's personnel and ships, then subtly sabotage Oser's relationship with his employers. Outmaneuvered over and over again, Oser finally gives up and offers to join the Dendarii, under the command of "Admiral Miles Naismith".

However, that is not the end of Miles' troubles. First, Elena and Baz fall in love, and Baz asks for his permission, as Baz's liege lord, to marry her. Miles, after a confrontation with Elena, reluctantly gives it. Then Miles' feckless cousin Ivan Vorpatril shows up. From what Ivan can tell him, Miles deduces that his father is or will be charged with treason, arising from Miles' acquisition of a fleet; Counts and counts' heirs are permitted only a small personal guard. Miles speeds back to Barrayar just in time to extricate his father. To save himself from the same charge, Miles suggests to Emperor of Barrayar (and foster brother) Gregor Vorbarra that he secretly accept the Dendarii as his own, to be employed whenever Barrayaran forces cannot be openly utilized.

Shards of Honor (Vorkosigan Saga #1) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Shards of Honor
Series: Vorkosigan Saga #1
Author: Lois Bujold
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 222
Words: 80K
Publish: 1986

My eyes, my eyes, my manly eyes! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh……

I didn’t realize this was going to be a romance. Of course, romance fans would cry out that their delicate feelings had been manhandled by all the science fiction, so both camps should be unhappy. I HATE when authors like Bujold pull crap like this. I almost rage quit the first time “his long eye lashes” were mentioned. Even as I’m writing this review I’m getting upset.

Bloody expectations. If I had known this had female wish fulfillment elements (like Mack Bolan the Executioner is male wish fulfillment) I would have been prepared, as much as I could be anyway. I do not want to read a book where I am in a woman’s head as she’s thinking about some guy and all her feelin’z. Spare me!

The story is still decent and I do plan on reading more. BUT! I will be putting on my man armor when I go to read future books so any “romanz thoughtz” bounce off and don’t stab me in the back. And I’m bringing a gun to that knife fight.

Bookstooge's Man Armor Mark I

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

Cordelia Naismith, the captain of a Betan Astronomical Survey ship, is exploring a newly discovered planet when her base camp is attacked. While investigating, she is surprised by a soldier, hits her head on a rock, and awakens to find that, while most of her crew has escaped, she is marooned with an injured Betan ensign and Captain Lord Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar, notorious as the "Butcher of Komarr", who has been left for dead by a treacherous rival. During their five-day hike to a secret Barrayaran cache, she finds Vorkosigan not at all the monster his reputation suggests, and she is strongly attracted to him.

When the trio reaches the base camp, Vorkosigan regains command of his crew. He returns to his ship with Cordelia and her crewman as his nominal prisoners. She meets Sergeant Bothari, a career soldier with mental problems which he controls through adherence to rules and an attachment to a strong commander—in this case, Vorkosigan.

Vorkosigan informs Cordelia that upon their arrival on Barrayar, she will be free to return to Beta Colony; however, he asks her to marry him and remain on Barrayar as Lady Vorkosigan. Before she can consider his request, the crew of her ship, who have returned against her orders, join forces with Vorkosigan's rivals to "rescue" her. Cordelia helps defeat the resulting mutiny before returning with her crew to Beta Colony. During her captivity, she realizes that the Barrayarans seized the planet because the system it is in provides a way to reach Escobar. Escobar is a rich system with many "wormhole" access points and thus control over a lot of interstellar trade.

The invasion of Escobar is led by Crown Prince Serg Vorbarra, the vicious son and heir of Emperor Ezar. Now a captain in the Betan Expeditionary Force, Cordelia goes to Escobar in command of a decoy ship that distracts the Barrayaran ships on picket duty at the wormhole exit so that transport ships can deliver a devastating new Betan weapon to the defenders. She is captured by the sadistic Admiral Vorrutyer, who orders Sergeant Bothari to rape her. Bothari refuses, calling her "Admiral Vorkosigan's prisoner". Vorrutyer, Vorkosigan's embittered ex-lover, decides to do the job himself. As she fills a profound psychological need of his, Bothari kills Vorrutyer before he can do anything. Vorkosigan, having heard Vorrutyer is holding Cordelia captive, comes to kill him himself, only to find the deed already done. He hides Cordelia and Bothari in his cabin. In disgrace, he has been assigned a minor role in the invasion under the watchful eye of Imperial Security Lieutenant Simon Illyan, who has a brain implant that gives him total recall of all he sees and hears. However, he is required to report only to the Emperor, so he does nothing when Vorkosigan concocts a story that Cordelia killed Vorrutyer and escaped.

The new weapons enable the Escobarans to drive the Barrayarans back with heavy losses. Crown Prince Serg and his flagship are lost, as are all officers senior to Vorkosigan, leaving him in charge. He commands his fleet's retreat under fire. Cordelia overhears one critical fact and deduces that the entire invasion was orchestrated by the dying Emperor to remove his unstable son (via an honorable death in battle) and discredit the war party in order to avert a civil war after his death. When Vorkosigan no longer needs to hide her in his cabin, she is placed in the brig. When the ship is attacked, Cordelia is injured when the violent maneuvers toss her around her cell.

Cordelia recovers in a prison camp on the same planet where she first met Vorkosigan. The camp inmates, mostly women, have been mistreated and in some cases raped by their captors. When Vorkosigan finds out, he summarily executes the commanding officer. Cordelia assumes command of the POWs by virtue of her rank and spends much of her time dealing directly with Vorkosigan. She informs him she knows the real reason for the Escobar campaign. She again rejects his marriage proposal because she sees what Barrayaran society does to people.

When the war ends, prisoners are exchanged. Vorkosigan has to deal with some uterine replicators – artificial wombs, each containing a fetus from a prisoner raped by a Barrayaran soldier; one of the fetuses is Bothari's. The Escobarans refuse to take them, so Vorkosigan arranges for their care and later adoption on Barrayar.

On her way back to Beta Colony, Cordelia is unable to convince a psychiatrist that her injuries are not the result of being tortured by Vorkosigan, and her fervent denials only make it seem she has been psychologically tampered with; she is suspected of being an unwitting Barrayaran mole. She fears that she will be interrogated using drugs and reveal damaging information about Vorkosigan.

She escapes to Barrayar and marries Vorkosigan. She also encounters Bothari, now one of Vorkosigan's father's personal guards and somewhat saner, thanks to better medical care. Bothari's daughter Elena is cared for by a local woman.

The dying Emperor Ezar Vorbarra wants Aral to become the regent to his grandson and heir, the four-year-old Prince Gregor Vorbarra. Aral at first refuses, but Cordelia convinces him to take the job.